She looked over at Fred and Regnark, who were smiling at her with ridiculous grins on their faces.
“Well…that certainly seemed like some sort of religious experience there, little lady. You look better, though; I thought you’d been heavily drinking just a few moments ago, but now you look like you’ve sobered up quick,” the big man covered in furs said to her, before turning back to Fred. “I want some of whatever she was having,” he joked in a whispered aside. Eisa figured it was obvious what his smile implied, but she didn’t care what he thought.
Fred, on the other hand, was smiling for another reason. “That was amazing! Not only can you create dungeon defenders, but you can absorb Mana as well! We’re going to have to test it out to see what else you can—”
“No time for that. I sense something else heading in our direction – and I doubt it’s another friendly face from up north.”
Eisa scrambled to her feet as Fred did the same, the expression on his face going from happy to heavy concentration in a split second. He looked at her and nodded, before pointing off to the east. Fight or flee?
She got her answer as a large circle of dirt and stone surrounding them disappeared, creating a circular ring pit 10 feet deep and 10 feet wide; Eisa, Fred, Regnark, and Deecy were located in the center intact circle which was about 20 feet wide. It was almost like they were on a tiny island in the middle of Gatecross, just waiting for whatever was coming their way.
Eisa wasn’t sure what her Goblin Gnome could do against whatever was attacking them, but she was ready.
Chapter 4
Fred again felt like he was being neglectful of their safety, as he let his attention wander from the state of his territory. Even given that they were important matters – like catching up with Regnark and informing him of what was going on (which the big man took much better than Fred had expected), healing the rest of the wounds that he still couldn’t see under all the bear furs, and learning a little bit about Eisa’s new…abilities – he should’ve been more alert to potential threats. Now that he wasn’t distracted by watching the former Necro-healer absorb Earth Mana like it was nothing, he could concentrate on protection.
Using his Territorial Sight, he was able to see that there were nearly thirty Earth-based Dungeon Defenders heading in their direction; he wasn’t sure if it was the noise they had been making, the sight of the flames in the center of their campsite, or if it was just happenstance that they were passing that way, but there was no way they would be able to outrun the “monsters” heading in their direction.
He didn’t look at them for more than a brief glance before he discovered that they were entirely land-based, so he took steps to set up some defenses. Using his Unconverted Mana, he created a large circular pit that surrounded him and the others, leaving them relatively safe in the center. It was wide and deep enough that those coming towards them were unlikely to be able to get to them easily, but that wasn’t all he was planning on doing.
“What’s going on?” Regnark asked, confused at what was happening, but getting prepared to fight like the veteran Adventurer Fred now knew he was. If he thought the appearance of the pit was strange, he didn’t show any signs of it – or he didn’t care because he was likely still exhausted.
Fred realized that he and Eisa had both reacted to Deecy’s warning because of the Mana Communication within their head, but the big man didn’t have the benefit of that silent communication. “We’ve got Earth def—monsters incoming from the east. There’s about 30 of them, though fortunately none of them look extraordinarily powerful.”
Regnark took this knowledge in stride, just as well as he did the creation of the circular pit; if the bear-fur-clad man had doubted Fred’s assertation that he was half Dungeon Core before, those doubts were probably being chased away faster than the enemy was arriving. Fred gestured to Regnark’s beat-up sword and asked, “Do you have any other weapons? I’m not sure how effective that sword will be against what’s coming.”
The big man grunted loudly, before responding with a mournful tone. “No, unfortunately. My favorite bow was smashed to pieces by a Stone Giant not too long ago when I was flung against a tree, and I had to leave my two-handed war axe at home. Though, home is a bit of a misnomer now – everything was destroyed. I’m sure if I were to go back, I might be able to salvage a couple of things, but it would be suicide going back there for just a hunk of metal.”
Regnark had told him how a wave of various Earth monsters had descended on the unprepared village of Northend a week ago, and only about half of them were able to flee with their lives. The big man himself had been out hunting, luckily, and he had come upon the survivors and led them south; over the next week, they had been forced to backtrack to avoid hunting parties of more Earth monsters, making the less-than-one-day trek extraordinarily long.
He said that only five of them had been left just hours ago, when they were practically ambushed by four Stone Giants. Only Regnark had survived the encounter, though he left there highly wounded and his only weapon was the beat-up old sword he had taken from the corpse of one of the others. Fortunately, Fred was able to heal him up almost back to normal, and there was something he could do about the lack of weapons.
He brought up the memory of the bow he had learned to shoot all those months ago – albeit poorly at the time – and used his Mana to Create another one just like it. In less than a second, it materialized in his hand and he gave it to Regnark, who looked more than surprised at its presence.
“Where did you get—? Never mind, do you have any—?”
Fred was already on top of it, and he handed a quiver full of arrows that he had just Created before the big man could finish asking, before turning to other matters. Wanting to know what he had available to work with himself, he checked his Core Status and DAS Interface.
Dungeon Core Status
Fredwynklemossering
Core Faction: Fire-Water-Nature-Earth
Core Age: 2
Core Structure Level: 8
Fire Mana: 20/139
Water Mana: 22/138
Nature Mana: 22/138
Earth Mana: 22/22
Unconverted (Unusable) Mana: 4412
Unconverted Essence: 7122
Skills
Master Mana Sight: 100%
Master Territorial Sight: 100%
Expert Mana Absorption: 4%
Expert Mana Conversion: 1%
Intermediate Mana Communication: 62%
Intermediate Core Crystallization: 21%
Intermediate Defender Creation: 67%
Intermediate Mana-formed Object Creation: 28%
Novice Essence Conversion: 9%
Novice Sentient Mana-formed Object Creation: 50%
Novice Dungeon Core Absorption: 87%
Novice Dungeon Creation: 98%
Novice Defense Creation: 79%
Dungeon Information
(none)
Dungeon Adventurer Syndicate Interface
Name: Fredwynklemossering
Class: Instructor-Researcher
Rating: E-6th
Essence Needed to Rate-up: 5197
Total Essence: 765803
Available Essence to Distribute: 67216
Unconverted Essence: 44120
Body: 14 (0/81920)
Brawn: 13 (0/40960)
Mind: 16 (0/327680)
Vitality: 130/180
Stamina: 150/160
Power: 1200/5100
Base Physical Attack: 13
Base Physical Defense: 13
Power Regen Rate: 25/min
Class Traits (Instructor)
Your available Power is increased by your Mind stat
Your Power Regen Rate is increased by your Mind stat
You are able to pass along the knowledge of your spells and abilities to another (success is variable)
Class Traits (Researcher)
Your available Power is greatly increased by your Mind stat
Your Power Reg
en Rate is greatly increased by your Mind stat
You have a much-heightened ability to adapt known spells and abilities for use in other applications
Class Abilities (Instructor)
Teach 4 – 0/27000
Class Abilities (Researcher)
Experiment 0 – 0/100
Adapted Abilities
Animate Dead 1 – 0/1000
Repair Animation 1 – 0/1000
Vitality Transfer 3 – 0/9000
Vitality Explosion 1 – 0/1000
Shield of Darkness 1 – 0/1000
Lifedrain 1 – 0/1000
Repair Object 1 – 0/1000
Conjure Object 4 – 0/27000
Disarm Trap 3 – 0/9000
Sudden Shock 1 – 0/1000
Fireblast 1 – 0/1000
Slamming Shout 1 – 0/1000
Spike Arrows 1 – 0/1000
(List truncated due to space – focus here for additional abilities…)
He had ended up using almost 4,000 of his available 5,100 Power to heal Regnark back to nearly full Vitality; if he had been a normal Healer with better healing abilities, he was sure it wouldn’t have taken nearly that much – but that was the state of matters at the moment, unfortunately. He still had 1,200 Power available to use against what was coming, but he would’ve rather had much more than that.
Fred also noticed almost as an afterthought that he hadn’t received any Essence since before the attack on his dungeon a month ago. He supposed it made sense, though; he hadn’t exactly been “alive” and in a position to absorb his portion of the essence, as he had been burnt to a crisp by the time the Essence was being doled out. As a result, he was still E-6th-Rated, but his Adapted Abilities didn’t really reflect that, of course.
As far as his Core Mana went, he was sitting at only 20 in Fire and 22 in Nature and Water; the other element – Earth at 22 and rising – he couldn’t do much with, as he had no blueprints for defenders or defenses. The absorption of the Earth Core had been severely interrupted when it had exploded in the middle of the process, which was likely the reason he didn’t get anything from it.
Theoretically, he could utilize the Earth Mana to create some more hybrids, but he didn’t have enough time to experiment; the Earth-based dungeon defenders would be there in a few seconds. Instead, he created another Flametripper Spiker on the eastern edge of their inner circle, where it could help defend them from the direction that the enemy was coming from. Anything else was going to have to wait until they saw exactly what they were up against.
While he could see what they were, he didn’t know how powerful they were or what kind of attacks they could perform; he knew Nature-based creatures fairly well by then, as he had delved through many of their dungeons with his Guild, but he hadn’t ever gone through an Earth Dungeon. Because of that, he could only rely on what his Territorial Sight could tell him about the creatures they were facing.
Goblin Gnomes (Level 5)
Vitality: 20
Attack: 7, Knife Stab, Bite
Defense: 5
Respawn: 8 Earth Mana
The Goblin Gnomes looked a little smaller than Eisa’s from earlier, which made sense because hers was a Level 10 – and it had almost drained her of all her Earth Mana. She apparently didn’t have a lot of Mana inside of her, which was unfortunate, because she had likely obtained some of the blueprints from the Earth Core that he didn’t; if she had access to more-powerful (and therefore more expensive) defenders, he could really use the help right now.
He wasn’t really worried about the enemy Goblin Gnomes, though, even if there were about two dozen of them; they were so weak that the only one in danger was likely Eisa, as the little Gnomes’ knives likely wouldn’t even penetrate Fred or Regnark’s skin. No, it was the larger defenders that the smaller Goblin Gnomes were hitching a ride on that concerned him.
Crystal Scorpion (Level 5)
Vitality: 380
Attack: 80, Pincer Strike, Tail Impalement
Defense: 30, (120 Crystallized Exoskeleton)
There were six of the large Crystal Scorpions heading in their direction, each with four of the Gnomes riding on their backs. The giant scorpions were at least 15 feet from the end of their forward pincers to their tails, and their eight legs lifted them off of the ground about a foot; in addition, their entire bodies were encased in a clear crystalline exoskeleton that appeared to take the place of their normal outer shells, though their faces and barbed stingers at the end of their tails looked…normal. Their faces and stingers were a dark green/brownish color, and when you looked at them in comparison to the rest of their bodies, the crystal shells they exhibited almost made them appear as if the bugs were encased in thick layers of ice.
Fred could see why the Goblin Gnomes were riding on top of the Crystal Scorpions; the giant bugs were eating up the distance between them and Fred’s group faster than he thought possible. Within seconds they would be within range of sight of the others, so Fred thought to warn them what was incoming.
“We’ve got six Crystal Scorpions and two dozen Goblin Gnomes incoming, so let’s see what they do—”
As they emerged into the faint light given off by the Fire Mana he had burning in the middle of their protective circle, Regnark lifted his bow and shot three arrows faster than Fred could even follow. He cut off what he was going to say when he saw the three arrows impact the face of the lead Scorpion, one in each eye and the last directly in its mouth. The three precisely shot arrows – when combined together – were fatal wounds, and the Crystal-encased bug took two more steps and collapsed, its momentum making it slide a few more feet before its front pincers dug into the dirt, causing it to stop abruptly.
The four Goblin Gnomes weren’t expecting that and flew through the air, landing hard nearly 20 feet ahead of the downed Scorpion. A quick glance at them told Fred that they were hurt – but not enough to hinder them as they picked themselves up and brandished their knives ahead of them.
Unfortunately for them, the other Crystal Scorpions were still running rapidly forward and either didn’t see the Gnomes or didn’t care, as they practically impaled them with their sharp crystalline legs, ending their lives near-instantly. At that point, they were about 60 feet away from the dug-out circle Fred had made less than a minute ago, so he turned to Regnark to see if he could do that again – when he stopped.
His first human friend in the world looked even more ragged than he had when he first arrived.
“Sorry,” Regnark said as he panted, seeing Fred looking at him in concern. “Using my Pinpoint Accuracy skill takes a lot out of me; I forgot that I still hadn’t fully recovered my Stamina from earlier.”
Makes sense. When Fred looked at his friend’s Stamina again, he could see that it was down from the 110 it had been just a few moments ago to just 20, which was very dangerous. “Don’t use any more skills – shoot normally and do your best. I’ll keep you supplied in arrows, just don’t stop,” Fred told him, using his Mana-formed Object Creation to Create two dozen more arrows while he said that.
Regnark nodded, nocking another arrow on his bow and taking his time before he fired. Fred didn’t watch to see if he succeeded in hitting one of the Scorpions again, but he assumed the big man’s low Stamina was affecting his aim; he heard a *thunk*, followed by a cut-off screech as one of the riding Goblin Gnomes got knocked off its ride by an arrow.
He ignored that, though, because the dead Crystal Scorpion had finally dissolved and left a big blob of Earth Mana behind; it was time to see what Eisa could do with some more ammunition.
Chapter 5
Normally, when Fred absorbed or manipulated the available Mana inside of his territory left behind by fallen defenders, all he had to do was think about absorbing it and the Mana would flow quickly where he needed it – either right to him as an absorption or to a defender blueprint. What he hadn’t ever done was move it around his territory at a distance, placing it in another location – but now it was time to try.
He had observed earlier that Eisa needed to physically contact Earth Mana to absorb it again, so it wasn’t doing any good about 200 feet away where the deceased Scorpion had fallen. With a thought, Fred “grabbed” hold of the large blob of brown-colored Mana and brought it close to him as if he was going to absorb it; he stopped from doing that since it wouldn’t do much good, as it would turn into Unconverted Mana in his Human Core. Instead, he stopped it just a foot away from himself, where it floated in the air within reach.
By that time, the Crystal Scorpions with their passengers arrived at Fred’s circular-shaped pit and paused right on the edge. While they were large and could reach halfway across the pit with their forward pincers, they couldn’t navigate their way to the other side; since the pit was made with 90-degree angles, if they fell down the pit they wouldn’t be able to climb back up – theoretically. What they could do was assist the Goblin Gnomes in their way over to Fred’s area of safety.
As Fred turned to Eisa to see what she could do with the Earth Mana, the Scorpions started flinging their tails forward, propelling a single Goblin through the air and over the pit. Five small ugly forms flew towards them, brandishing their rusty knives and screaming incoherently as they rocketed toward them. Fred’s Flametripper Spiker grabbed a pair of the Gnomes with two of its flaming leaves, which started to burn them as soon as they were snatched out of the air. Since they were a low level and not terribly powerful at that, they were killed within seconds.
Dungeon World 3: A Dungeon Core Experience Page 4